The Old Sagas of the Gods

The Old Sagas of the Gods

Rudolf Steiner Archive Document

Lectures Section

This lecture was given by Rudolf Steiner at Dusseldorf, on the
22nd of March, 1905. The notes of this lecture were translated
from shorthand reports, unrevised by the lecturer, by an unknown
translator. There is an explanatory section at the end of the
lecture with quotations from “Teutonic Myths,” by
Donald Mackenzie. It is presented here with the kind permission
of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

A Lecture given
by Rudolf Steiner
Dusseldorf, March 22nd, 1905
Bn/GA Unknown

This lecture was given by Rudolf Steiner at Dusseldorf, on the
22nd of March, 1905. There is an explanatory section at the end of
the lecture with quotations from “Teutonic Myths,” by
Donald Mackenzie.

This lecture was translated from shorthand reports, unrevised
by the lecturer, by an unknown translator. And, it was transcribed
by an unknown typist! It is presented here with the kind permission
of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.
The Bn/GA is unknown.

This e.Text edition is provided through the wonderful work of:Various e.Text Transcribers

Donated by the Los Angeles Steiner Library, this lecture has been made
available to everyone.

The Old Sagas of the Gods

March 22, 1905

Nothing in
the Mystery-lore penetrates so deeply into Theosophical
thought as do the Northern Saga poems. If the European can
familiarize himself with these he can proceed from them to
find his way more and more deeply into esoteric domains. The
understanding of these Sagas of Northern mythology can only
be attained in advanced stages of life's outlook. The
Northern myths were essentially the subject of the Northern
Mysteries. We must distinguish between the Mysteries of
Western Europe and of Northern Europe. In Scandinavia and
Russia there were the Mysteries of the Trotten; in the West
and in England the Mysteries of the Druids. Both these
Mysteries have now disappeared. “Druid” means
“Oak”. The priest or wise man of the Northern
world was called an “oak”.

The
passing-away of the northern belief in the Gods is itself
communicated to us in a beautiful Mystery, — the
overcoming of the Oak by Boniface; that is the conflict of
Christianity with the Mysteries of the Druids. The prevailing
note in the northern myths is tragical; in all the myths of
Central and Northern Europe there is something tragical.
“The Twilight of the Gods” represents the
passing-away of the Northern World of Gods. After their fall
a new Sun god, a new Baldur, was to prevail.

In the other
Mysteries, not those of the North, there is always a note of
hope and of confidence.

What was
enacted first in the Mysteries had to be fulfilled. The
Apocalypse tells of a future in which Christianity will be
fulfilled. In the Northern myths something different was
prophesied. They had the experience of the overcoming of the
northern Gods through Christianity. This is the key, in four
stages, for the understanding of the new Mystery. The first
stage is that of the first Northern sub-race in the fifth
root-race. In Central Europe Christianity was spread abroad
in the fifth sub-race of the fifth root-race; four sub-races
had gone before. The secret of the first four sub-races is
that they perceived how Christianity would, in the fifth
sub-race, take the place of what had gone before. We go back
into a dim past to the first sub-race of the fifth root-race
on Northern soil. There were at that time, the Initiation of
the Trotten in the North, and of the Druids in the West. In
primitive temples, half natural and half constructed, there
was a sacred enclosure. In this two Gods were represented as
ruling the world: — Hu and Zeritwen; — Hu is
Osiris and Zeritwen Isis. Man is Horus. There were three
grades of initiation, — first ? Soothsayer (?); second,
Bards; third, Druids. A man who had been initiated into the
three grades underwent transformation, so that through the
awakening of his higher faculties he became the God Baldur.
The mystic had to say to himself: — “Thou must
become the re-animated Baldur who was killed by the God
Loki.” He was then given the consecrated mead, and the
consecrated ring. Mead corresponds with the Indian Soma
drink. At his initiation the Northern initiate was first
instructed as to the evolution of the Earth, the preceding
stages of the planet. On Earth we are to continue to learn
until we have risen above the possibility of error: —
our life is then transformed into a sort of rhythm as regards
quite clear spiritual activity. Logical thought only came
about very gradually from a process of evolution. Later on, a
common feeling of human morality will develop, just as
logical thought has developed now.

What is error
on one planet is illness on the next. What is error now on
Earth will be illness on the next planet to the extent in
which the beings capable of error have remained behind. We
should not have a harmonious organisation to-day, if this
harmony had not been formed from the chaos of the Moon. We
owe the wonderful organisation of our body to the Moon
evolution. The illnesses of our present age have remained
behind from the Moon, and were there enacted as errors. They
are that which did not attain perfection in the Moon
evolution. This was the concept in the Druid Mysteries. For
those who had remained at a standstill a particular plant was
administered. There was no real mineral kingdom there, only a
stone-plant nature, and an animal kingdom, half-way between
our present plants and minerals, (animals?)

The mistletoe
was the symbol of that which has remained behind, from the
Moon. It draws nourishment from the living. It is the symbol
of all the injurious beings and products which keep the Earth
back. Hur, who ruled on Earth from the Moon, is Loki, who
brought to the Earth that which ought to have gone through
its stage of development on the Moon. Baldur is the God of
the Sun, the bringer of all life; the active Sun-forces; Loki
is his necessary opponent. Baldur was terrified by bad
dreams, which later were to be fulfilled. All creatures were
under an oath not to injure Baldur, but the mistletoe was an
exception. None could kill him, except the injurious element
in evolution. That is why Hodar threw the mistletoe at
Baldur. Hodar is the blind mechanical necessity, which had to
make use of what remained behind from former times in order
to overcome Baldur. That was one part of the Mysteries; the
other part was that the blind mechanical necessity would be
overcome, and harmony established through the Christ
experience. In Christ a new Baldur must arise.

There was
then a company of twelve great Initiates; the thirteenth was
their leader. At that time he was not more advanced than the
others. This Initiate was called Siga, or Sieg. Having
attained a certain age he was capable of surrendering his own
individuality to a higher Being, of taking in a higher Being
into himself — (That. is one of the greatest Mysteries;
the Descent of the Dove into Christ Jesus.) — the
individuality of Odin or Wotan. This is the same who had
lived as a great Initiate in Atlantis. During the decline of
the Atlantean race, Europe, which was then tropical,
gradually became a cold realm of mist. The remnants of the
Atlanteans came forth from Iceland.

The coming
forth of Wotan is represented in the following way. First
there were the masses of ice; on this those who came over
from the Atlantean world were saved. The cow Autumbh
[Audhumla?] licked
the ice-masses. Wotan passes through two incarnations,
through Bure and Bör. He then became Wotan by reason of
the chela individuality of the chela Sieg. Everything which
was of the Sieg nature in the chela was synthesised by the
name Sieg.

In the first
sub-race it was Wotan who was the opponent of Hönar or
Wille, and Loki or Weh. Wotan after having incarnated had to
go through a severe test. For nine long days after he had
been wounded in the side where the heart lies, he had to hang
on a cross-beam. To him then came Mimur, and taught him the
Runes. (foreshadowing of the Christ deed.) Then came his
resurrection. This was his initiation in the first sub-race
of the fifth root-race. Wotan then established a Mystery, the
origin of humanity itself. First came our Earth, but without
the minerals and plants. It was all enclosed in one great
individuality, the giant Ymir. He was overcome by Wotan,
Wille, and Weh. From him, (Adam Cadmon,) came forth the whole
earth. From his skull they made the heavenly dome; he was the
macrocosmic man. From him the Gods made the structure of Earth.

From the body
of the giant came forth dwarfs which lived in the inner part
of the Earth. From the “Plant-men” which the
three Gods found, from Asgar, ?ASK?) and Emble (Oak) and
Uhne, they formed the physical man. The three Gods
constructed the sheaths of man.

Wotan or Odin. . . . . . . . . . Sthula Sharira.

Wille or Hönir. . . . . . . . . . . Linga Sharira.

Weh or Loki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kama.

----------------------------------------------

Wotan, Odin gave the Spirit.

Hönir, Wille gave Life and the Law (of Nature.)

Loki or Weh gave Warmth and Colour, Kama.

----------------------------------------------

Thus were the
human sheaths constructed by the Gods. The dwarf is the
little man who is actually the spiritual; he was the spark
that came to fructify man, who from the middle of the
Lemurian time, is to form Manas, Buddhi, and Atma. The human
Ego had first to take form in the depths, or it would have
been immediately transformed into dead mineral by the sunlight.

The
Initiation of the second sub-race was as follows: —
Wotan was to have the thread of Wisdom. The second sub-race
was to evolve slowly to this stage. Wisdom was formed by the
Giant Stitunger. (Suttung?) He guarded the draught of Wisdom.
The giant had a daughter called Gunlet. Wotan cannot reach
the draught of Wisdom, so he changes himself into a serpent
and enters the sanctuary of Gunlet in which he remained for
three days. The serpent is the Self endowed with Wisdom. What
occurred in the Lemurian age is now recapitulated.

The three
Gods find the dwarf Antwar, as Hecht, and Otter the son of
Hreidmar. Otter has the form of a fish-otter; he is killed by
Loki. The father was to receive the skin of Otter filled with
gold within and without: — this signifies the
permeation of man with the gold of Wisdom. Previously Sthula
Sharira, Linga Sharira, and Karana Sharira had been formed.
Loki kills that which was formerly on the Earth, Otter, and
brings Wisdom, the gold. Besides this gold there was the
golden ring.

Man, before
he entered our present earthly evolution, was in quite
different conditions. He did not then receive his impressions
through the gates of the senses. The ring signifies the
enclosure of man in the sense-impressions, which make the
Self a personal being. (Nibelungen-ring.)

In the third
sub-race Wotan and these belonging to him were once more
initiated. He had brought the chalice of Wisdom into the
dwelling of the Gods. There the chalice or draught of Wisdom
was guarded by Mimir; he possessed the wisdom which can lead
us further. At the time of the transition from the Lemurian
race man only possessed one eye, through which he was not yet
shut off from the outer world. With this he could perceive
what was useful or harmful to him. When man was enclosed by
the ring of his sense-nature this eye drew in; the gift which
he now received had to be purchased by sacrifice. Wotan had
to buy the new endowment by the sacrifice of the cyclopean
eye; (not through one of the other two eyes.)

The Volsunge
and the offspring of Wotan, Siegmund, Sigurd, and Siegfried
are the race of initiates within the fourth sub-race.

The last of
the initiations was undergone by Siegfried, he overcame the
dragon, that is, the lower nature. He is now invulnerable to
all the lower. He cleanses himself through Katharsis, through
the consciousness of the higher; he must pass through the
fire of passion in a purified state, and thereby win
Brunnhilde. He only remains vulnerable at the place where one
carries the Cross! it is said that the next initiate will not
be vulnerable in this place.

The King
Atli, (Atlanti) reaches over from the Atlantean time into the
old northern Saga-world. He is the great Atlantean
Initiate. He only gives way to the representative of the
Christian Initiates, — the Pope.

Quotations from “Teutonic Myths.”

by Donald Mackenzie.

(Explanatory of the preceding lecture.)

“Only a
Northern people living in close proximity to Arctic ice
fields could have conceived of a chaos-gulf bounded on the
North by a cold and darksome Nifelheim, and on the South by a
warm and bright Muspelheim. Life begins to be when and where
the ice-blocks are thawed.

Now when the
sparks from Muspelheim fell through the frozen vapour, and
the heat was sent thither by the might of the All-Father,
drops of moisture began to fall from the ice. It was then and
there that Life began to be. The drops were quickened, and a
formless mass took human shape. Thus came into being the
great lumbering clay-giant whose name was Ymer. ------------ More
drops fell through the gloomy vapours, and next was formed a
gigantic cow, named Audhumla, “void darkness.”
(Ymer lived on the milk of the cow, but for her there was no
verdure upon which to feed. She stood on the verge of the
gloom, and found sustenance by licking constantly the huge
boulders that were encrusted with salt and rime. For the
space of a day she fed in this manner, licking the boulder
until the hair of a great head appeared. On the second day
the cow returned to the boulder, and ere she had ceased to
lick, a head of human semblance was laid bare. On the third
day a noble form sprang forth. He was endowed with great
beauty, — and the name he received was Bure, and he was
the first of the Asa Gods. There followed in time more
Beings. Bure had a son named Bör, who took for his wife
Bestla. Three sons were born to them, first Odin, second Ve
or Honer, and third Vile or Loke or Lodur. Later there was
war between the giants and the Gods. Ymer was slain, and the
Gods set forth to frame the world. Ymer's body was cut to
pieces, his flesh and bones became soil and rocks, his skull
was made into the dome of heaven, and his brains the clouds.
The ice-cold blood of the giant became the waters of the sea.)

“As yet
the sun knew not her home, nor the moon her power, and the
stars had no fixed dwelling place.” “As yet there
were no men who had their dwelling upon the earth,” but
later “when sun and moon were set in their courses, and
the days and seasons marked out in due order, there came a
time when the sons of Bör were walking (on the worlds shore)
and they beheld two logs of wood. They were grown from Ymer's
hair, which sprang up as thick forests and verdure abundant
from the mould of his body, which is the earth. One log was
of an ash tree, and from it the gods shaped a man; and the
other, which was an alder tree, they made into a fair woman.
They had but life like a tree which grows, until the Gods
gave them mind and will and desire. Then was the man named
Ask and the woman Embla, and from them are descended the
entire human race, whose habitation is Midgard.”

“Odin
is a War-god and a magician; he controls battles and is the
inventor of runes; he hangs on the World-ash, which bears one
of his names, ‘Ygg's gallows,’ — (Ygdrasil) as if
he were a king that was sacrificed.” “He is a
one-eyed giant, a Cyclops; his lost eye sinks in Mimers well
as the sun sets in the sea. He is also the Wind-god, —
the Spirit-god, — (wind, breath, soul.) He gives
“soul” to the logs of ash and alder which become
the first man and woman.” —

“Ygdrasil has three great roots; they suck up the
waters or mead of the three eternal fountains, and these
mixed together give imperishable life. One is in the well of
Mimer, where the fibres are made white with the holy mead,
which gives wisdom to men and poetry also, and is the very
elixir of life eternal. Of this Odin drank deeply, and the
price he paid was an eye.” There was also the
Song-mead, which was stolen from the Moon-god. This skaldie
mead was given by Ivalde to Suttung, the giant, and in return
he was promised the giant's daughter Gunlad, for his wife.
Odin resolved to recapture the mead, and assumed the form of
the wooer of the giant-maid; and thus he entered the dwelling
of the giant, and went through the ceremony of marriage.
Later the giants suspected him, but Gunlad enabled him to
escape in the form of an eagle.

“Secret
runes, which have magical influence, did Odin also invent.
For nine whole nights he hung on the high branches of
Ygdrasil, pondering and searching out the secrets of the mind
and of the universe. For the power of runes was before the
beginning of man. They are mixed with fate, and their potency
did Odin discover when he drank from Mimer's well. They have
also power over death and the world beyond. Runes there are
to ward off strife and care, to charm away sickness and
disease, to blunt the foeman's sword, to break fetters that
bind, to still the storms, to ward off the attacks of demons,
to make the dead to speak, to win the love of a maid, and to
turn away love that is not desired. And many more there be.”